Development of Ultrasound Piezoelectric Transducer-Based Measurement of the Piezoelectric Coefficient and Comparison with Existing Methods

Abstract

Energy harvesting using the piezoelectric material in the development of compact vibration energy harvesters can be used as a backup power source for wireless sensors or to fully replace the use of fossil-resource-wasting batteries and accumulators to power a device or sensor. Generally, the coefficient is used as the metric for evaluating the property in materials. Recent research reports that accurate measurement and calculation of the coefficient in materials, especially in polymers, can be challenging for various reasons. From the reviewed references, different methods, including the quasi-static, dynamic, interferometric, and acoustic methods, are discussed and compared based on the direct and indirect effect, accuracy, repeatability, frequency range, and so on. A development of an ultrasound piezoelectric transducer is conducted to estimate d33 coefficient with a reference value. The purpose of the method was mainly to measure the values of piezoelectric material in order to measure the efficiency of the poling process in piezoelectric materials. The test setup described in this study allowed for the effective measurement of the d33 factor of piezoelectric materials using a 1.4 MHz PZT ultrasonic piezoelectric transducer. The arrangement of the components, including the use of organic glass, copper, and aluminum electrodes, ensured accurate and reliable measurements. This setup can be valuable for various applications requiring the characterization of piezoelectric materials and for understanding their behavior under specific conditions. The advantages and challenges in this method are discussed and compared with existing works.